Thursday nights at Hard Rock Café have become a regular haunt for music lovers who come to hear a good band play something that they can sing along to.

While most bands that play here bend towards rock and metal, with a little bit of funk thrown in, it is surprising to hear a group play the music we were familiar with in college.

Named after the mythical bird, the band Pheonix from Hyderabad claimed to bring to life classic rock, reggae, blues and jazz fusion.

Armed with a set list comprising of only covers, the band's two-hour performance began with Bob Marley's Is this Love and moved on to classic rock with a twist for Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here and Gun N' Roses' Sweet Child Of Mine, by infusing reggae with rock.

Most of Bangalore's pub-going crowd take their classic rock quite seriously.

Sudden changes and infusions are usually not welcome unless these changes are good enough to perk the interest of the audience. Sadly, Phoenix failed to deliver as part of its performance was tied down with harsh, jarring sounds.

However, the second set list was better.

Rachel Ankita on the keyboards took over some of the leading vocals and delivered an amazing performance of Kings of Leon's Use Somebody although her version of Black Velvet and Adele's Rolling in the Deep was not as good.

The band's routine was elevated a notch thanks to some dexterous guitar work by Keith D'Rozario.

The band is just six months old and needs to work harder before it can soar to great heights like its namesake.

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